File BBR-18712/3/1 - Letters from Francis O’Neill to William Halpin

Letters from Capt. Francis O’Neill, 5448 Dreyfus Ave, Chicago to William Halpin, Newmarket on Fergus, Co. Clare. The letters refer to a number of uilleann pipers both resident in the United States of America, as well as, Ireland. These include Bernard Delaney and Patsy Touhey (Touhey, Patsy, 1865-1923), ‘two first class pipers’, Ireland’s ‘double prize winner’ Bob Thompson, ‘McAuliffe’, ‘Stephenson’, Charlie Ferguson, ‘Bishop O’Connor of Limerick’, ‘Bishop Touhy of Limerick’, ‘Andrews’, ‘Mr O’Mealy of Belfast’ (O’Mealy, Richard Lewis, 1873-1947) and Eddie Joyce. There are also references to other musicians including the fiddler John McFadden, who O’Neill describes as, ‘our best traditional fiddler’. The letters refer to phonograph piping records which O’Neill and Halpin exchange throughout the course of these letters. There are also a number of references to the Professor of Irish at University College, Cork and author of a number of books on Irish music, ‘Rev. Dr. [Richard] Henebry’ (Henebry, Richard, 1863-1916). O’Neill says that he is in correspondence with Henebry and has sent him a number of phonograph records also.